Events & Projects & Collaborations

PopFest is an annual Population Studies conference for graduate, postgraduate and PhD students. It is organised by PhD students in order to bring together researchers from different Social Science disciplines such as Demography, Sociology, Social Statistics, Public Health, Social Policy, International Development, Human Geography, Urban and Landscape Planning, Social Anthropology, Gender studies and other related fields, with a focus on Population Studies. 

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Advances in Life Course Research publishes articles dealing with various aspects of the human life course. Seeing life course research as an essentially interdisciplinary field of study, it invites and welcomes contributions from anthropology, biosocial science, demography, epidemiology and statistics, gerontology, economics, management and organisation science, policy studies, psychology, research methodology and sociology. Original empirical analyses, theoretical contributions, methodological studies and reviews accessible to a broad set of readers are welcome. Articles might focus on specific events as well as on whole segments of the life course, including determinants and consequences, social relationships and policy implications, without restrictions over time and space.

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About the project
This project studies the impact of two critical life events – job loss and union dissolution – on the life trajectories of adults and their children. The consortium distinguishes between two pathways through which these events may produce an accumulation of inequality over the life course: risk and vulnerability. Risk refers to social gradients in the likelihood of experiencing these events, whereas vulnerability refers to social gradients in the impact of these events on economic and noneconomic outcomes.
The project’s main objectives are to understand (1) how job loss and union dissolution contribute to the accumulation of (dis)advantage over the life course; (2) what mechanisms explain the (unequal) impact of these events; and (3) which work and family policies are effective in targeting these mechanisms in order to reduce inequality. Consistent with the aims of the DIAL research programme, the research sheds light on the causal links between critical life events and the dynamics of inequality. It also aims to inform policies that promote the life chances and well-being of disadvantaged groups in society.

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Technological innovations, such as robotics, big data, increased computing power and machine learning, promise great potential for increasing productivity and boosting general welfare. Furthermore, these innovations play a crucial role in securing the competitiveness and growth of EU economies. However, technological innovations may also have an impact on social inequalities (income, skills, wellbeing and health).

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• Anne Christine Holtmann receives ECSR prize
  Anne Christine Holtmann (Ph.D. 2017) receives the prize for the Best Ph.D. Dissertation from the European Consortium for Sociological Research (ECSR) in 2018.
  The dissertation is entitled: "Why are children from disadvantaged families left behind" and was supervised by prof. Fabrizio Bernardi.
  
  
• Fabrizio Bernardi's talk at the TEDx Pisa 2015 on inequality, education and social mobility
  La pericolosa curva Grande Gatsby: cosa succede se l'estrazione familiare conta più dello studio 

• ECSR 2017 Best Poster Award
  Marco Cozzani (EUI, SPS researcher), Moris Triventi (formerly EUI, now University of Trento) and Prof Fabrizio Bernardi (EUI) have been awarded with the best poster presentation prize by the board of the European Consortium for Sociological Research for their research on "Maternal Stress and Pregnancy Outcomes. Evidence from the 2004 Madrid Bombing".
  The prize has been assigned during the September 2017 ECSR general conference, held at Bocconi University.

• RC28 Significant Scholarship Award
  Professor Fabrizio Bernardi from the Department of Political and Social Sciences (EUI) has been awarded the 2017 RC28 Significant Scholarship Award prize for his article Compensatory Advantage as a Mechanism of Educational Inequality by the Research Committee 28 on Social Stratification and Mobility of the International Sociological Association.
  The prize has been awarded to him during the RC28 meeting, held at the Columbia University in August 2017.